3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

Snowhog,
I'm sorry to report that I'm currently having a "bad" session, but in the log the module is shown:

___________________________________________

Scanning kernel log files for NVRM messages:

 /var/log/messages:
Jul 23 12:18:49 A26 kernel: [  19.789265] NVRM: loading NVIDIA UNIX x86 Kernel Module 100.14.11 Wed Jun 13 18:21:22 PDT 2007

____________________________________________

So that can't be the case. Is there a "boot log" somewhere, that shows what has been loaded at boot time, and when?

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

The command

dmesg

shows how your system loaded up and configured itself at boot. This would probably be good to print, after a "good" session and also after a "bad" session -- it might reveal what's different.

In the /var/log folder is a file "Xorg.0.log" which shows the detailed configuration of your last X window configuration -- basically the results of processing /etc/X11/xorg.conf. So that's a good one to review for purely video-related problems.

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

I tried the "dmesg" at a good and at a bad session. I looked at them, there are some differences but I couldn't make out anything from them. But I'm a newbie... I post here the two logs, in case anyone understands something from them!

Cristian

[dibl]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

OK, analyzing dmesg output is going to quickly exceed my technical competence, but I believe you have a problem with drives and partitions, to wit:

[  22.629672] EXT3 FS on sdb9, internal journal
[  22.852640] attempt to access beyond end of device
[  22.852646] sdf: rw=0, want=4022132, limit=2011136
[  22.852648] printk: 62 messages suppressed.
[  22.852651] Buffer I/O error on device sdf1, logical block 4021888
[  22.852655] attempt to access beyond end of device
[  22.852657] sdf: rw=0, want=4022133, limit=2011136

This is in your "bad boot" output -- I haven't looked at "good boot" yet, but you shouldn't have this kind of stuff going on, I don't think. Maybe one of the gurus knows better .... :P

[dibl]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

The two dmesg outputs are surprisingly different, coming from the same system. How many hard drives, CD/DVD drives, and other removable storage (USB) devices are connected to it?

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

Well, I actually have a lot of peripherals installed... I have 3 optical drives (1 CD-RW, 1 DVD-Rom, 1 DVD-RW) and 3 Hard Drives (2 SATA and 1 IDE), all of them partitioned. I also have an USB card reader, currently with one SD card inserted...
As for the error messages, I have no idea what they mean, or what I should do to fix them...
I'm getting a little discouraged, I don't "feel" that this system is dependable as it is... I'm starting to think about a big format/reinstall, "Windows style"...

Cristian

[SheeEttin]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

Perhaps the problem is interrupts, given you have so many things...

[dibl]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

SheeEttin, if you'd like to take a look at either of his dmesg listings, I'd love to hear your theory of what's going on with all those drives and devices -- there's a joystick in there too. I'm no Linux engineer, but I think he may have more devices than interrupts to service them!

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

But then, if it's a problem of too many peripherals (but how many are too many? With Windows they work perfectly), what I still wonder is: why do I, about 50% of the times, get good sessions where everything works perfectly?

[SheeEttin]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

Interrupts are assigned at boot time. I'm not sure how, and I'm not sure if they would stay the same with the same hardware.

Interestingly, it's when interrupts start getting mentioned that things start changing. What I would do is start unplugging things and rebooting until it doesn't happen. Unlike other applications of this process, this will take quite a while. I suggest you set aside about an hour to do this.

[dibl]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

For some of these peripherals, the Windows drivers may be better than the Linux drivers, unfortunately, due to the preference of the hardware builders to put their efforts more into Windows support. That could explain why things that work great in Windows could be problematical in Linux -- not hard drives, but removable USB things, joysticks, etc.

If it were me, I think I'd combine your instincts to re-install the OS with SheeEttin's experimental approach. Probably I would take all the USB stuff off, pull the plug on the least essential optical drive, and and then do a new installation on the basic system with hard drives, 2 optical drives, floppy, keyboard and mouse. Wouldn't hurt to run the memory test for a couple of hours at this point, just to rule that out as a source of trouble. Then, before plugging any more peripherals in, I would try to get that Nvidia card performing correctly, using Envy if it's an 8000-series, or the nvidia-glx-new package if it's earlier than that. It would be good to see if you can get a stable installation with the basic system, and then you can start plugging in the peripherals one at a time, and see if it holds together during reboots.

I hope there's some help in here somewhere ... :P

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

I will have to try that, thanks for the suggestion.
By the way... Is there a way to reinstall Kubuntu without loosing all my settings? I mean: I know I will loose all the applications I installed myself, but when I reinstall them, would I get all my settings back? Are the settings stored in the home or root partition, and does a reinstall affect them?

EDIT: Another question: is there a way to get a list of all the apps I installed after OS install? Many packages I installed following forum posts in reply to some problems I had, I would hate having to research all of them from scratch...

Cristian

[SheeEttin]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

The traditional way is to put /home on another partition. If you want to do that now, go ahead. The next best thing would be to back up the rc files in your home and the directory ~/.kde/share. System-wide stuff is in /etc, but if you want to back that up, be very selective.

As for installed things, you can get a list of installed packages by executing "dpkg-query --list | grep '^ii '". This produces a whole lot of output (it displays every last package), so, if you're going to use it, either pipe it through less or send it to a file.

[Quaxo76]

Re: 3D Acceleration OK on some boots, slow on others

I just finished reinstalling a new instance of Kubuntu on another partition. Updated, set up, and everything. And I kept the hardware "lighter", removing several USB peripherals and the joystick. And I'm sad to say that I still get the slow sessions. Not as frequent, maybe, but still. I searched around on the Internet and couldn't find anyone else with the same problem... I wonder if it's some sort of obscure hardware incompatibility with my particular selection of hardware parts...

Cristian